At Week's End

Capsules Of Commentary On Events In The News

April 01, 1995

THE LAST SUB

Newport News Shipbuilding, the Los Angeles class submarine and the Peninsula have had a good 20-year run, but tonight's 7 p.m. christening of the Cheyenne is being viewed as the symbolic end of the era.

The Cheyenne will be around for a while, but future submarines are scheduled to be built by General Dynamics' Electric Boat division in Groton, Conn.

To note the importance of this christening, the shipyard will entertain 10,000 guests - it's free as long as there is room - with a laser light show, fireworks, a speech by Sen. Alan D. Simpson, R-Wyo., and the traditional champagne christening. See you there.

TENNIS AT W&M

Tennis reaches a new plateau on the Peninsula today with the opening of the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center at the College of William and Mary. The 60,000-square-foot center contains six indoor tennis courts and men's and women's locker rooms for the college teams and for people who buy memberships at the center.

The building was financed with a $3 million gift from W&M alum Mark McCormack and his wife, Betsy Nagelsen, a professional tennis player.

With this new facility, W&M should be able to compete for the best student players in the nation. Nagelsen probably won't be the last pro player whose name is associated with W&M tennis.

GO HEELS

And while we are on the subject of college athletics, here's our best wishes to the only Atlantic Coast Conference school to make it to the final four of the national basketball championship playoff.

The University of Virginia Cavaliers were certainly a credit to the state in this year's NCAA tourney, and Virginia Tech deserves congratulations for winning the NIT. But with Tech's season over and U.Va. eliminated last week from the NCAA tournament, the local favorite should be the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.

EXPERIENCE VALUED

The belated news that Reps. Herbert Bateman, Robert Scott and Norman Sisisky of Virginia's 1st, 3rd and 4th Districts, who collectively serve most of our readers, voted against congressional term limits is reassuring. Bateman and Sisisky are good examples of why an automatic expulsion of able legislators would be unwise. Both have benefited from the years in office necessary to master the intricacies of defense spending that are so crucial to their districts. Had term limits been in place, both would have been forced to leave office in 1994, having served 12 years.

As for Scott, now in his third year in the House, should a point come when his constituents feel he no longer reflects their interests, we trust in the democratic process to produce a worthy challenger. For the time being his sensible voice on behalf of at-risk children and rational crime control is an asset to Congress.

ALLEN ON TELEVISION ...

Gov. George Allen says he appeared on the Phil Donahue television show because he wanted national exposure. He doesn't seem to understand that exposure and stature are two different things. The kind of exposure that Donahue provides is more likely to turn a politician into a national joke than to enhance his national stature.

Donahue's show is one of many that have a sleaze factor equivalent to a supermarket tabloid like National Enquirer. His topic was welfare reform on Friday, but on Monday he is more likely to be discussing transvestites who meet in interstate restrooms or women who marry their daughters' boyfriends.

Allen makes no secret of the fact that he craves the national limelight. The question is how far will he go and how much embarrassment will he heap on Virginia to get it.

... And radio

The Donahue show was, in fact, just one example this week of Gov. George Allen's penchant for using the broadcast media. Allen is buying radio air time to hype his agenda for next week's one-day veto session of the General Assembly. The governor is purchasing the radio time with money that his political backers have contributed to his political action committee.

The line between politicking and governing - indistinct, at best - has been completely erased by Allen. Although no one has ever accused Allen of being too subtle, there is something unseemly about this blatant politicizing of the legislative process. We just hope that listeners understand that Allen's message is more about politics than it is about governing.

Springtime hero

People sometimes make false idols out of athletes, imbuing them with character traits out of proportion to their physical abilities. But there are instances of true heroism.

The most tragic news from the baseball strike occurred off the field. David Shotkoski, a 30-year-old former pro trying one last time to make it as a replacement pitcher with the Atlanta Braves, was shot to death March 24 during an apparent robbery attempt near the hotel where Braves players were lodged in West Palm Beach, Fla. He left a widow and an 8-month-old daughter.

Outfielder Terry Blocker, a deacon and a fringe big-leaguer who put in years of yeoman service with the Tidewater Tides and Richmond Braves in the 1980s, is the hero in this story. He went into the bad neighborhoods of West Palm Beach to try to identify a suspect. He was one of several people whose tips led to an arrest four days after the killing.

Heroic to the end, Blocker declined reward money, and he held his head up after getting his own bad news: The Braves released him, and he is now trying to decide what to do with his future.